Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - September 2014

We regularly publish a summary of reports compiled by our twelve regional Agents following discussions with at least 700 businesses across the UK every reporting period.

Published on
17 September 2014

Retail sales values growth had eased, but this was due to lower food price inflation; consumer services values had continued to grow steadily.

Housing market activity had stabilised at lower transaction levels, after a weakening in earlier months, which contacts largely attributed to the implementation of the Mortgage Market Review. House price inflation had eased.

Investment intentions for the next twelve months had remained steady, and were consistent with more rapid growth in services investment than manufacturing.

Business services turnover growth had remained strong.

Manufacturing output growth for the domestic market had eased. Fragile European demand, sterling’s appreciation and the crisis in Ukraine had affected export volumes.

Construction output growth had eased slightly but remained robust.

Corporate credit conditions had improved further.

Employment intentions had weakened in manufacturing and consumer services but had increased further for business services.

Recruitment difficulties had edged up, and were affecting a widening range of sectors.

Capacity utilisation had eased over the month, as investment and recruitment had boosted capacity at some firms ahead of expected demand growth.

Growth in total labour costs per employee had remained steady.

Materials costs and imported finished goods prices had continued to fall on a year earlier.

Output price inflation had edged lower, but profitability had continued to rise modestly.

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